The personal qualities of some people are puzzling, especially if they are directed to their detriment. To such features of behavior it is possible to carry victimism - set of properties of the person inclined to become a victim of a crime and accidents. The concept is considered in psychology and criminology.
What is victimization?
Victimness is a feature of a person's behavior, which involuntarily attracts aggression from other people. The term originated from the Latin word "victima" - the victim. The term is widely used in the Russian victimology - the interdisciplinary field of criminology, which studies the process of becoming a victim of crime. One of the first definitions of this phenomenon is the property of being a victim, but one can regard it as a pathology. Victimality and victim behavior are manifested in different spheres of life. But the deeper the phenomenon is considered in family relations.
Victimality in psychology
The phenomenon of the victim is at the crossroads of legal and social psychology . In terms of the latter, victim behavior is a deviation based on factors such as:
- predisposition;
- external circumstances;
- influence of society.
Victims are most affected by adolescents. An immature person more often than adults becomes a victim of negative circumstances, phenomena, people, and not only. To cause damage does not necessarily have to be another person, it can be a wild animal, element, an armed conflict. This problem is one of the most urgent in modern psychology and has not yet found a solution.
Causes of victimization
Intuitively, a person tries not to show his weaknesses in the presence of a potential enemy, to avoid conflict and dangerous situations. If this does not happen, the victim's victim behavior is manifested. What provokes the actions of the individual, the commission of which he brings upon himself trouble? There are three types of people provoking violence over themselves:
- Passively-subordinate . That is, the victim fulfills the requirements of the attacker, but does it sluggishly, or misinterprets words and orders. Such people are the most (40%) of the total number of people with the described syndrome.
- Pseudo-provoking . Without knowing this, the potential victim does everything to persuade the opponent to aggression: behaves defiantly, frankly, etc.
- Unstable type . The alternation of both types of behavior, inconsistency in their decisions and actions, the manifestation of inattention or misunderstanding.
Inadequate self-esteem , anxiety, emotional instability makes a person at risk of becoming injured. The causes of victim behavior are often hidden in family relationships. The prerequisite for its emergence are such factors as:
- violence;
- victim's syndrome with parents;
- an unfavorable environment in which an individual (a dysfunctional, incomplete family) grew up;
- being in other antisocial groups.
Attributes of victimhood
In situations where the psychology of the victim manifests itself, victim behavior is reflected in lawful and unlawful actions that may not affect the commission of a crime in any way, but can play a decisive role. Victim type manifests itself in different ways: it is expressed in emotional instability, craving for subordination, difficulties in communication, distorted perception of one's feelings, etc. If people tend to react wrongly to life-threatening moments, they are likely to get into trouble. A personal victim's identity is determined by such qualities of character as:
- obedience;
- suggestibility, credulity;
- carelessness and frivolity;
- inability to stand up for oneself.
Victim behavior and aggression
In relations, the offender-victim in half the cases of committed violence is the fault of the interacting people, and not a coincidence of circumstances. The human factor plays a big role. Some people are more vulnerable, others less, but in the absolute majority of crimes of violent nature, the victim's actions become a trigger for aggression. What can be done "wrong"? Behave yourself defiantly, bursting into trouble or, conversely, sluggishly, emotionless. In this case, the psychology of victim behavior is such that the potential victim herself is prone to aggression and violence.
Victim and personal and professional
Every victim is unstable. Problems arise in the psychological and social (and, perhaps, physiological) properties of the individual. But the victim syndrome manifests itself in different ways. Russian specialists distinguish four of its varieties, which in real life can be superimposed one on another:
- Victimogenic deformation is the result of poor social adaptation. Expressed in increased conflict, instability, inability to abstract thinking.
- Professional or role-playing . Characteristics of the role of man in society, increasing the risk of encroachment on his life and health by virtue of his position.
- Pathological , when the syndrome becomes a consequence of the morbid state of the individual.
- Age - some groups of the population who, due to their age or the presence of disability, are characterized by victimization.
Victim relationships in the family
All deviations are laid in childhood, and the model of the offender and the victim begins to form in the family. Domestic violence has a physical, sexual, psychological and economic form and is carried out through threats and discrimination . Cases are not single. The victimization of women breeds the aggression of men (and vice versa). The mechanisms of control and power that husbands use deprive the weaker sex of freedom, opportunities for self-realization, and sometimes for health. And this leaves its imprint on the psychological state of children.
How to get rid of victimization?
From a psychological point of view, victimization is a deviation from the norm, and it can be treated. There is no specific drug for the disorder, and the approach will depend on the reasons for its occurrence. Victim behavior can be eliminated in two ways:
- Medication (sedatives, tranquilizers, antidepressants, etc.).
- With the help of psychotherapy. Correction is made by correcting behavior or feelings, learning self-control and other techniques.
The predisposition of a person to get into unpleasant situations is not always his fault. And the more so the phenomenon does not justify the aggressor (for example, the rapist or the murderer) and does not shift his guilt to the victim. If the problem is in actions and actions, you need to learn how to control them. Having realized the incorrect behavior, there is a chance to fix it, so as not to commit stupidity and not find the problem from scratch.